


Essay

by jeffersinning



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Cuban Lance (Voltron), F/M, HS AU, Minor political reference, Pidge is bad at English, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 11:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17079329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffersinning/pseuds/jeffersinning
Summary: Pidge is failing English class and turns to the last person she would’ve thought could help her.





	Essay

**Author's Note:**

> This is a manifestation of my headcanon that Pidge is a technical genius but mostly inept in regards to the nuances and workings of literature and the written English language. 
> 
> The political reference is in a negative light on Donald Trump. It’s rather minor, but if it may offend you in any way I discourage you from reading this.

She’s never understood it. She could analyze numbers and code backwards, solve equations in her sleep and memorize molecular formulas at first glance, (okay, maybe that was an exaggeration) but the one thing keeping her from being valedictorian of her class was her English grade.

It was kind of sad, really. Looking down the column of grades on her midterm report card, there were perfect A’s in all but English, which had an almost embarrassing C. It was humiliating— whenever they’d write essays in class and Pidge would spend about five minutes of the allotted time staring at the prompt, trying to make sense of it.

Analyzing words just wasn’t as easy as numbers for her. Extracting the meaning and nuances of diction, syntax and other parts of grammar and speech and sentences that she could not remember for the life of her just didn’t come as naturally to her technical mind.

It was expected when her teacher was handing back graded midterm tests that she had failed hers— the C in the grade book already implied it. Her hypothesis had been proven correct, when a packet with a big red C- was placed on her desk.

A variable that she hadn’t thought of, however, was the fact that the teacher had placed a test packet with a big A+ on the desk of the loudmouth kid that sat next to her— Lance.

He must of heard her mutter “what the fuck?” in response to the grade, because he spun around in his chair to face her, an offended expression matching her own.

“Do you have a problem?” Lance asked, looking Pidge up and down. She didn’t talk much in this class— instead opting to not draw the attention of her peers. Sure, she had just managed to squeak her way into the AP English class, but for once in her life, she felt like she didn’t belong in the advanced class.

She was surprised that Lance was in this class though. Not knowing the guy much personally, she’d been told by one of her robotics team teammates that he had moved here back in middle school from Puerto Rico, but his family was from Cuba.

Pidge vaguely remembered the arrival of the new student, but hadn’t interacted with him at all. She had chosen French as her language path, and thus wasn’t able to communicate with the new student from Cuba who only spoke Spanish at the time.

Lance obviously must have learned and maybe even mastered English by now though, from the looks of that A+ on his paper. It was kind of embarrassing, and while it was definitely a thought that could possibly come out of Donald Trump’s peanut brain (if he thought at all...), but wasn’t she, the native English speaker, supposed to be better at English?

“Hello? Uh, Kaylee? Earth to Kaylee?”

Pidge blinked owlishly, being torn from her thoughts by Lance’s waving to get her attention.

“My name’s Katie,” she corrected, adjusting her glasses awkwardly.

“Well Katie,” he mimicked the way she said her name, the speed and tone almost perfect. “You didn’t answer my question. What the fuck were you staring at?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly, moving her hand so it covered the C- on her paper. She was too slow though.

“Wait,” Lance said, looking down at his own paper. “I got a better grade on the midterm than the smartest girl in the class?”

The auburn-haired girl’s face flushed with embarrassment at his announcement, and the teacher told him to quiet down.

That obviously got the attention of the rest of the students— those who hadn’t heard Lance’s broadcast of their grades. Now everyone was staring at her and whispering and probably thinking of how _stupid_ she was.

She felt the embarrassment turn into shame, her face twisting into a frown and her vision blurring with tears. Excusing herself from the room and grabbing the girl’s bathroom pass, she made a beeline to the girl’s bathroom and locked herself in a stall, crying.

It wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t be struggling with this. She was smart— a genius to some, and she couldn’t even write an essay correctly, no matter how much she tried.

Emerging from the stall with red eyes and a nose raw from sniffling and blowing it, she removed her glasses and washed her hands and face, before going to exit the bathroom.

Outside of the bathroom, however, was the last person she wanted to see.

Lance was standing there, boy’s bathroom pass in hand. He didn’t look like he was going to try to make her any more upset, but she didn’t know what he was going to do.

“Man, I thought you’d be in there forever,” he told her, trying to lighten the mood. Pidge wouldn’t have any of it, continuing to walk briskly back to class. Lance grabbed her wrist, however, and she had half the mind to call it assault and never have to see this kid again.

“What?” she snapped, turning to glare up at him. He was towering over her small frame, and it would be threatening if she didn’t know that she could probably fight him if she wanted to.

“Look, Katie, I’m sorry,” he said, expression genuine, and speech soft. Her face softened at his words. “I’m an insensitive idiot, and I shouldn’t have broadcasted your grade to the entire class.”

“Thanks for acknowledging it.” She deadpanned, turning to continue back.

“I wasn’t done,” he said tugging her back towards him. “I guess I was just really proud of myself. I wouldn’t have called you the smartest girl in the class if I hadn’t meant it, and I guess I was genuinely surprised to see that you were having problems in a class.”

Katie kept looking at him expectantly as he seemed to be on a trail of thought, pausing to really think about what he was going to say and how.

“As you know, that AP English class is the only one I’m in,” he told her. “My grades in history and science are subpar, and my math grade is abysmal, even though I’m in a...” he seemed to hesitate before saying it, “special math class. For idiots like me.”

“I’m taking Spanish as a grade booster, but it doesn’t help much. I’m not as brilliant as you are.”

Pidge was starting to feel bad for worrying over one dumb class. Was this how Lance felt, only in almost every single class he was in?

“I guess I do well in English because I spent so much time back in middle school reading so I wouldn’t be behind. It was embarrassing not being able to communicate with anyone, and my English as a Second Language teacher really encouraged reading as a way to quickly improve my English.”

“It worked,” she told him quietly, surprised that he was being so genuine with her. He smiled at her, and she noticed that his eyes were a mesmerizing dark blue color.

“If you want help... I can try to help you,” he offered gently, trying hard to make it seem like he wasn’t forcing it upon her.

“Do you think you could turn my grade from a C- to an A+ by the end of the year?” she said jokingly, but was still serious.

“We can try.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago and I have no idea why I had Lance move to Puerto Rico before coming to the US.


End file.
